Clifton CC

Firstly a big thank you to Mark, Liz and family, Steph, Bernard and everyone else involved in organising the Tan Hill audax. Rob spurred 7 of us on with one stop in Reeth and a well deserved tail wind back to Shipton. A bit damp to start with - after 2 wet years surely next year will be a scorcher!

How did the racing contingent get on?

The Stockport Clarion road race was wet and muddy. A stellar field finally allowed a break of 13 to get away after 2 laps of trying. I made it into the break along with Such notables as Malcolm Elliott, Rob Sharman and Tom Barras. These three duly left the rest of us with a couple of laps remaining, Elliott won from Barras with Sharman third. I was pipped to fourth by James Williamson. I did, however, win the primes on laps 3 and 4: £10 and a Sunday lunch voucher for a pub in Stockport. That'll come in handy, can anyone suggest things to do on a Sunday out in Stockport?

Lunch?

..there was a WONDERFUL thread on the veloriders forum a while back about cr*p prizes at bike races. Suffice it to say your voucher was some way from being the worst - the single toeclip and the (expired, I seem to remember) voucher for a haircut easily beating it!

Re. things to do in Stockport - guided tour at Robinson's Brewery? Don't know if it's open Sundays, though. Or there's the Hat Museum (I kid you not - you can see it from the viaduct [1] when you pass through on the train, which is how I found out about it)....
No riding-related exploits to report from me, but one bit of good fortune which also ties in with the comments about rubbish prizes; I got a distinctly non-rubbish prize from an internet competition on Friday afternoon in the shape of a pair of Conti GP4000S tyres! Not fitted to the bike yet, but might give them a try out if I ride the TT at Thorner next week.

Dave B

[1] Another claim to fame for the town; apparently this viaduct's the biggest brick structure in Western Europe.

Thanks to Mark and all those who helped out for a great event yesterday, I enjoyed myself , tail wind home from Leyburn made the final run back to Shipton more enjoyable than I had anticipated. Already looking forward to next year.

The MTBers had a good run on Saturday on the Moors.

6 turned out for a ride from Hole of Horcum around Fylingdales, Langdale and the moors managing to clock up about 25 miles. The weather was reasonably kind although Gill's navigation induced some 'dizziness' amongst riders for a while.

An equal split of male and female riders too. Is that a first for a Clifton Club Run?

To be fair, Gills navigation slight probably wouldn't have happened if the forestry commission hadn't cut down the trees!

At one point we had two full size maps of differing scale out, one photocopy, a compass (though that was just for show) and two GPS devices and we still managed to be pointing in wrong direction in that infernal plantation.

Having the cafe stop after the ride instead of during it worked out better anyhow

Just to add to Steve and Andy's comments on the Tan Hill Audax thanks to Mark and his helpers for the organisation and very welcome refreshments after a hard days riding.

Rode Rutland CCs 2/3/4 cat RR at Harworth - 60 miles or so. A wet drive down but the roads were dry when I got there and it was actually quite warm.
A decent quality group of 9 took off on about the 3rd of 8 laps never to be seen again with victory going to Julian Ramsbottom. I wasn't part of this break but started putting some turns in at about half distance. On the fastest and least technical part of the circuit I was in the front 10 or so when a crash behind me literally brought down the rest of the bunch behind or delayed riders further back - so the bunch was reduced to about 15 riders. Got away in a group of three on the last lap but got caught inside the last couple of miles with a couple of riders then jumping clear and staying away. I knew I needed a good sprint now to get anything but I had enough time to recover a bit and went from a long way out and just got pipped on the line by Boneshakers Craig Stephenson. 13th place gives me 3points so will now retain my 2nd cat licence when I ride into my dotage next year. Only the 3rd time I've ridden the bike in the last couple of weeks and felt pretty rough in the first half but managed to come round a bit - so fairly pleased with that.

Things to do in Stockport - find the road out possibly?